Tara Thornton is Sookie Stackhouse's lifelong best friend. They bonded early over their shared status as social outcasts - Sookie, because of her ability to hear people's thoughts and Tara because her mother Lettie Mae was an abusive alcoholic.Tara is very intelligent but has an incredibly quick temper and takes and gives offense easily, which often gets her in to trouble and has made it difficult for her to hold down a job. The customer is not always right where Tara is concerned. Although she has very few people skills, she is able to read people well.She works at a bartender at Merlotte's and begins a casual relationship with her boss, Sam Merlotte. She later meets a man who goes by the nickname Eggs and falls for him hard, and the two become mixed up in the machinations of a maenad named Maryann Forrester, who is able to manipulate humans.Background: Tara's cousin is Lafayette Reynolds, the flamboyantly gay short order cook at Merlotte's, who also deals drugs on the side. She is very close to him, and the two often attempt to save the other from themselves.